By: Motorhead Mark Lester

Over the years we’ve been on the receiving end of many diverse requests from Supertrax readers. It used to be all about top speed. Later came the weight issue.

It still lingers and many continue to ask us what we think is the lightest snowmobile. Times are changing and, recently, your questions have moved in an entirely different direction. Now, the query du jour is: “Which sled gets the best gas mileage?”

Believe me, we listen very carefully to what you’re talking about. This year, everyone is talking about snowmobile fuel economy and because of this critical interest, this issue of Supertrax features “Mileage Champs” – a story on ‘09 sleds delivering impressive fuel economy.

We’ve made painstaking efforts to get you meaningful data on this topic. However, we’re not going to back away from this indisputable reality – snowmobile mileage is a moving target. However, it is reasonable to expect mpg info from us. We’re the experts on the sleds you want to buy. We ride them first, we ride them thousands of klicks in-season and we attempt to take every sled we report on, to ten-tenths of its potential – even if you never will.

This summer we had an intrigiuing opportunity to witness an all-terrain vehicle mpg test performed by our friends at Dirt Trax Television (the same Crew who produce North America’s top snowmobile TV Show, Snowtrax Television). What we learned from the Dirt Trax guys is this: The latest EPA sleds are only a whisker away from the latest ATVs when mileage is the issue. Got your attention now?

Dirt Trax took four new Sport Utility ATVs – a 300, a 650, an 800 and a 1000 on a 50 mile (80 kilometer) tour. They intentionally used pavement to eliminate any variations caused by wheelspin. Sure, ATVs are not used on roads but the Dirt Trax guys were intent on keeping the playing field level – something it’s impossible to do with snowmobiles.

The results generated were enlightening. First, the most powerful ATVs produce less than half the horsepower of the most fuel-efficient snowmobiles. Second, all the ATVs were 4-strokes.

Three of them had EFI and one was a carbureted model (the 300). Finally, the test data was accumulated with the operators paying strict attention to a 40 mph top speed with absolutely no full throttle pulls, period.

They were told to drive like fuel is expensive… hmm? Without stealing their thunder, the results of the Dirt Trax test were stunning. The most fuel efficient ATV in the test generated just over 38 mpg (US gal); the least carded 30.5 mpg.

Rewind to last winter and the arrival of the first direct injected Ski-Doo E-Tec 2-stroke. The 600E-Tec produces 120hp and moves a vehicle weighing between 400 and 450 pounds. After we completed the programmed-in break-in cycle we began scrutinizing gas mileage. At first we thought we were doing something wrong.

The sled carded one tank at 26 mpg. Admittedly it was an easy trail ride but I can assure you, there were some full pulls and 40 mph speeds were not strictly adhered to. Yamaha’s Vector has been a mpg champ for two seasons around here and we’ve seen 23 mpg under similar conditions.

Lets get some perspective. Snowmobiles produce a lot more rolling resistance than ATVs. Snow is an ever-changing medium that always produces slippage and most certainly requires significant power to overcome the friction of pushing skis and dragging rubber through it. When we calculate our mileage tallies, we use real world riding simply because there are no “perfect” conditions like pavement to run sleds on. However, when we talk about maximum mileage numbers, we don’t run WOT down Kevlar Lake, either.

Here’s the twist. Lets say we took those big displacement ATVs producing 60-70hp and ran them harder than the Dirt Trax test. Would their mpg drop? Certainly it would. Lets speculate a drop of 25 percent as a result of more aggressive throttle plying with some loose soil and mud mixed in. It could mean some 120hp sleds can deliver near-identical mileage.

Okay, we’ve made assumptions here to shed light on what we’re currently living with. Today’s modern, EPA certified, 110-120hp sleds are the mileage champs of the sno-mo-biz. However, those individuals we’ve heard talking negatively about snowmobile fuel economy need to look closely at the rest of the powersports industry for perspective.

We witnessed a strange twist while looking over the Dirt Trax guy’s shoulders. The 300cc 4-wheeler delivered better mileage – but not much better, considering its horsepower variance of more than 100 percent compared to the bigger ATVs. With sleds, this effect works backwards. Our 600 class EPA emission champs deliver better fuel economy than sleds producing about half their power.

Sure, ATVs still get better mileage than sleds, however, you don’t need a PhD to quantify the differences in power and the uncooperative surface sleds operate on.

By: Kent Lester

Leafing through back issues, doing research on 20 years of Supertrax was a lot of fun. I guess it’s true, time really does fly when you’re having fun – and we’ve had plenty over the past two decades.

It was great to flip pages from the early 90s and observe the different trends that have developed in snowmobiling – and, particularly, in snowmobiles.

How much has the modern snowmobile changed in the last 20 years? Plenty! Although the Supertrax era pretty much began after the years of independent front suspension, there have been other dramatic changes and they’ve evolved in cycles, all generated by your demands.

If you look back into the 80s, you’ll discover the biggest focus then was on getting all snowmobiles to adopt some form of IFS. From 1979, when the first production Polaris Indy was introduced, the industry never looked back.

Yamaha developed aircrafty struts, Arctic Cat began offering wishbone variations and Ski-Doo worked on them all, gaining its most consistent results from trailing arms.

By the time the first issue of Supertrax landed on newsstands, the focus was on suspension but not as it related to ride quality.

It was believed that independent front ends delivered more precise handling on snow and gave sleds that “race car” accuracy riders had been seeking so long. It turned out to be true but ride compliance was a moving target the manufacturers had barely identified.

When it came to engines, 2-strokes reigned supreme and 4-stroke snowmobiles simply didn’t exist. Held in greatest awe were the Polaris 600 and 650 triples – snowmobile engines with legendary smoothness and an exhaust sound Supertrax dubbed “The National Anthem of Snowmobiling”.

The manufacturers had barely bought into large displacement engines at that time. The 650 Wildcat twin was considered to be a massive howitzer of an engine and a 700 was unimaginable. For a long time, Ski-Doo and Yamaha were determined to squeeze big HP numbers out of engines with less than 600ccs.

Throughout the 90s, engine displacements increased and technical developments like reed valve induction and flatslide carbs were adopted by all the OEMs.

2-stroke electronic fuel injection was advanced by Polaris and Arctic Cat and, by the end of the decade, every manufacturer offered some variation of a 3-cylinder mill. Engine displacement standards had climbed into the 800cc range and Arctic Cat had delivered a 900cc triple in the Thundercat.

Sometime in the early 1990s discussion turned to suspension and ride quality. Long travel became a keyword and inches of suspension movement started to become the status quo for sales appeal. In the mid-1990’s Polaris jumped into the fray with a sled called the XLT.

With suspension travel in the 10-inch range and a smooth, small displacement piston port triple, it had the comfort and sizzle consumers wanted and its price was absolutely a bargain. After the XLT, every OEM was flat-out forced to build sleds with long travel suspensions.

By the end of the decade 9-inches in the front and ten in the rear was the industry standard. Shock packages were a critical selling point and adjustability (even though most consumers never took advantage of it) was a headline design feature.

Also in the 90s, the issue of snowmobile weight began to gain momentum. Because of the 3-cylinder engine phenomenon, chassis weight had been climbing and the type of riding snowmobilers prioritized, riding on groomed trails, didn’t rely on lightness so much as suspension compliance.

Actually, two factors evolved at the same time to make snowmobiles different than they’d been in the past. The rise of snocross bred a new group of younger riders who liked the challenge of rough trail or ditch riding and these enthusiasts began demanding lighter sleds.

These same riders began to see that long travel suspension, weight and, along with those two, engine torque, made a snowmobile ride bumps like a good motocross bike.

The rest is history. Sleds began paring away every spare ounce of mass, engines grew in displacement and offered big-inch twin cylinder mills with enormous torque output and suspension travel numbers increased beyond imagination. Triples were passé, electronics took over and the modern age began.

Next came 4-strokes and rider forward ergonomics. In 2003, Yamaha rocked the snowmobiling world with the RX-1. Prior to this, Arctic Cat had shown a 60-horsepower version of a 4-stroke – actually a very good sled.

But the RX-1 showed a determined commitment to high performance 4-stroke sleds and Yamaha claimed all its snowmobiles would be 4-strokes within the next five years.

The same year, Ski-Doo ventured the new REV, a sled so radical in design it has completely changed the way snowmobiles are designed and ridden.

Was that a busy 20 years or what?